A warm welcome to another newcomer to our travel writing contests, David Greer. Enjoy his great story ​Dr. Rap: An Unexpected Encounter here.

SHORT BIO

My name is David Greer. I was born in the US, but currently reside in Germany. I have been traveling and writing about it for about five years now and am always looking for opportunities to improve my writing.​

This year's competition just keeps getting better. Today I am thrilled to feature the latest entry from Lindsay de Feliz. You can read her story Consequenceshere.

​Lindsay de Feliz was born, raised and educated in the UK, where she worked in London as a marketing lecturer and a Marketing Director for various financial service companies. In her mid 40s, she decided to follow her dreams and travel the world as a scuba diving instructor, ending up in the Dominican Republic 17 years ago.

She was on a six month contract but fell in love with the country and its people and met and married a Dominican. Having been shot in the throat during a robbery she was unable to dive any more, and now works as a writer, translator and marketing consultant.

Lindsay currently lives in the northeast mountains in the Dominican Republic with her husband, four dogs, one cat, six goats, two geese and numerous chickens. She writes a blog about the Dominican Republic and daily life at www.yoursaucepans.blogspot.com and is the author of the bestselling books “What about your saucepans?” and “Life After My Saucepans”.

It is a always a real pleasure to feature newcomers to our travel writing contests. The latest entry in the 4th Annual Travel Stories Competition is from ​Aditi Nair, who lives in Mumbai, India. Here is an extract from her introductory e-mail:

"I'm an architect by profession and a curious traveller. I love exploring local communities and documenting varied ways of life. I especially adore living with rural communities and understanding truly sustainable ways of living.​

This is a story about me and my friend Shardul backpacking in central India following the river, from its origination till it reaches the Arabian sea in the west, in the summer of 2014."

This year's competition continues to produce some excellent stories. The latest is from another regular contributor, Mike Cavanagh. I am sure you will thoroughly enjoy his new entry, Canberra, In A Roundabout Way. You can read it here.

Mike Cavanagh is now in his sixties and has no idea how he got here. He lives with his wife, Julie, and two black cats in Bateman’s Bay, NSW. The house he and Julie live in is quirky and in need of regular maintenance, as are its owners. Mike's passions are writing, playing guitar, composing music, and, as Julie will only too readily tell you, playing too many role-playing games on PC. Find out more about Mike's book One of its Legs are Both the Same on his site: http://oneofitslegs.org

For our 5th entry this year, it is my pleasure to welcome back a regular supporter of ours, Frank Kusy. This contribution comes from his newly released book Life before Frank: from Cradle to Kibbutz and is titled Poor Economy. Enjoy Frank's story here.

Frank Kusy

​Born and raised in the fog-shrouded streets of 1960s London, and with more than 30 years of travel writing experience under his belt, aspiring Buddhist and incorrigible cat-lover Frank Kusy is constantly leaping out of his bed at night to write down book ideas before he forgets them. Some of them lead to good things, like his humorous series of travel memoirs set in India/South-East Asia and his quirky ‘Ginger the Gangster Cat’ book, which won a Gold Medal in 2015 for middle graders. Many others lead to nightmares, however, since he often can’t read his own handwriting in the mornings. Nevertheless, his books have received international press acclaim and have made the Kindle Top 100 List several times. He likes to write to make people smile.​Check out Frank's book store at: frankkusybooks.weebly.com

Our 4th Annual Travel Stories Competition is now well underway. This year's fourth entry is from Andrew Klein. Read his enthralling story To Italy and backhere.

Andy Klein was born in New York and raised in southern California. He graduated from San Diego State University, and, after attaining his master's degree in psychology, spent the next fifteen years traveling around the world. He taught children in Japan and Taiwan as well as here, in the states. Inspired by his youngest son, he has begun to write a series of children's books. He now lives with his family north of Atlanta.​

It is a real privilege to be able to feature Ronald Mackay with the third entry in this year;s Travel Stories Competition. Read his fabulous entry Words of Magichere.

Ronald Mackay, born in rural Scotland during WWII, worked for over 40 years running and evaluating development projects in many parts of the world. Since retiring, he has turned some of his experiences and preoccupations into plays, memoirs and short stories. ​

​He and his Peruvian wife live in a small house they built on the shores of Rice Lake, Ontario, Canada where they welcome family and friends from time to time.

The second entry in this year's Travel Stories Competition is from a regular contributor to our travel writing contests, Syd Blackwell. Enjoy his latest story FLOTELhere.

SYD BLACKWELL

​WITH LEAH​

​I was born in a little ski town that used to be a gold mining town in the mountains of southeastern British Columbia. I also lived on the coast, on Vancouver Island, in the north, and even in northern Alberta for a decade. I visited every province and territory in Canada, and more than 40 other countries. I was an educator, an innkeeper, and an assisted living facilitator. My life was rich with experiences before I left Canada less than two months before my 61st birthday.

​Uruguay, has been our home for more than a decade. My wife and I share our home with our five dogs. And quite a few visitors. We have found time in our retirement to do things we never seemed to find time to do before. I have found time to be a writer and an artist. Both give me great pleasure. We have continued to travel, particularly in South America.